Getting ready for baby!

Well, it's just about baby time.  My due date is 2 weeks away and this baby's about ready to come.  The most important thing we had to do to get ready for baby was to get James sleeping in a toddler bed and I'm happy to say that it was a success.  He's been sleeping great in his new bed for about a month now.  It took a few nights of transitioning and eventually a lock on the door, but everything worked out and now he's sleeping as great as ever.  

He is also trying to get as much daddy time as possible.  I think he's definitely going to miss the attention from Hans more than he'll miss it from me.  We're trying to let him get his fill before the baby comes and hopefully we'll be able to still give him the attention he needs after.

Other than that, the crib is ready to go, baby clothes are washed and we have a plan in place for babysitters for the big day.  The only thing we don't have is a name.  Kind of important, I know.  We've narrowed it down to Hiram, Thomas, and Noah, but we can't quite pin one of them down.  We're both giving this a lot of thought and hopefully we'll have made a decision in the next two weeks.  Other than that, it's just a waiting game.  I can't believe how this time has just flown past and that James is about to be a big brother.  We are so excited and can't wait to watch our family grow.

Explosion!

Ok, so this is a little morbid, I know, but it is one of the strangest things I've ever seen, so I felt the need to share.  This morning, James and I went outside to get in the car.  As we were walking to the car, I noticed a few fuzzy things on the ground.  I thought that was strange because there are no trees near our house that produce fuzzy things.  I was about to forget about it, but then I noticed feathers.  I looked around and there were fuzzies and feathers covering the driveway, part of the lawn, and my car.  I concluded that it was a bird, but how on earth could something like that happen?  I looked around and then glanced up and noticed the power lines.  I called Hans, being my electrical expert, to see if it is even possible for a bird to be electrocuted by power lines.  Apparently, it is.  Rare, but possible.  My next question was, "What would happen if a bird was electrocuted?"  The answer:  It would explode.  So there you have it.  This morning a bird exploded in my driveway.  Strange!

St. George and Halloween

It's been awhile, but I thought I should post a few pictures from our most recent adventures.  About a month ago we went down to St. George to do some swimming, hiking, and relaxing.

Hans towed down his land cruiser for some off-roading.  This is the first time he was really able to take it out and he loved it.  Here is James sitting in the back of the land cruiser.  He loved it.  He bounced around all over the place and got a big kick out of it.

We went on a short little hike up to Weeping Rock in Zion's National Park.  James did not love this adventure, but he sure loved being on Daddy's shoulders.

James found this stick when we took a bread for lunch.  He hardly ate anything because he was so preoccupied with it.  Amazingly, he pretty much only hit the ground and not other people.  That is until Marissa taught him how to sword fight.  Thanks, Riss.

We had a really hard time getting a good picture for Halloween.  Ironically, both James and Hudson were dragons.  It was so difficult to get both of them to look at the camera at the same time, so this is the best we could get.

It's a. . .

Ok!  I realize it's taken me forever to get around to posting this, so for those of you who haven't heard the news yet.  IT'S A BOY!!!  We are very excited and I'm sure if James understood what was going on he would be excited too.  It will be so fun (and exhausting) to have two little boys running around.  They'll only be about 19 months apart, so hopefully they'll be great friends.

The ultrasound was a few weeks ago and we found out that everything looks great.  So far, we seem to heave a healthy boy!  If you can decipher this picture, it's a little creepy.  Good luck trying to figure it out.

Beware! Political Meanderings!

My personal notes to liberal celebrities currently in the news.  (You may want to stop reading now if you're a democrat or otherwise offended by conservative ramblings.  Also stop if you are a Matt Damon lover.)

Dear Charles Gibson,

You are a biased idiot.  I find your patronizing facial expressions offensive and your manner demeaning.  You may think you're just being a good journalist, but you don't have to be a condescending jerk.

Sincerely,

A disappointed viewer

Dear Matt Damon,

I liked you, but your entitled attitude upsets me.  I wasn't aware that when dinosaurs lived was such an important political issue.  I will not be basing my vote on a candidate's beliefs regarding dinosaurs.  I believe there are much more pressing issues to follow in this campaign, ones that are actually relevant.  Oh yeah, and I think your comments are "absurd."

Sincerely,

An ex-fan

Dear Lindsey Lohan,

Are you serious?  Since when did you believe that anyone took you seriously?  I don't even know what to say to you.  I think you're crazy.

Sincerely,

At a loss for words

Lake Powell!

Well, we got back from our only vacation this summer.  It was tons of fun and so relaxing.  We went with Hans' family for a whole week.  Tons of thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for making it all happen.  James did so well the entire trip.  We had a blast.

Hans, James, Emily, and Cooper going for a swim.  

James hates the water, but he sure loved his ride on the molecule.

James got a diaper rash toward the end of the week, so he spent quite a bit of time in the nude.

Suckers were our saving grace and James favorite treat.  It just made everything a sticky mess.

Random!

I thought I would post a few random pictures from the last few weeks.  James just figured out that he likes to ham it up for the camera, so it's getting easier to get fun pictures.  He also decided that he's a daddy's boy.  He definitely prefers spending time with Hans than with me.

Just a day at the pool.  Believe it or not, we're making progress.  He doesn't hate it as much as he used to. 

He was munching on some cheerios and when I saw one stuck to his chin, I had to get a picture.  I don't know where he got this face from.

Do you think it's time for a haircut?

A rare happy moment on the boat.  Sometimes I don't even know why we do it.

Yes, he got in all by himself.  He can entertain himself like this for at least a half hour.  He just climbs right in on top of all the toys and then proceeds to empty the entire thing.  Sometimes he'll open a book in there and quietly look at it for awhile.  A precious few quiet moments for me.  And it's cute.  I love it!

I'm still alive!

Don't worry! I haven't dropped off the face of the planet. We've had a busy couple of weeks, but I thought I'd give a quick little update. James is finally walking. I can't decide how happy I am about that. I love watching him grow up and learn new things, but it sure makes my life harder. We're working on getting rid of the bottle and making it through church without any major meltdowns.

I think I'm finally past the morning sickness, so hopefully I'll be feeling good for at least a few months. I feel like I'm already showing. I guess the second pregnancy can be pretty different than the first. In other good news, I have my ultrasound scheduled so it will only be about 4 more weeks until we find out if James will have a brother or sister.

Hans is in seventh heaven because he finally got his Land Cruiser registered. It was quite the ordeal. Much thanks to Linsi for her help. Other than that, he is busy as can be with work and with our little house projects to get it ready to sell.

Well, that's pretty much our lives. A little boring, I know. One of these days I'll be back with some fun pictures and maybe even an exciting story.

SWIMMING!

I'm sorry, I don't have any pictures, but I felt this was worth mentioning.  Yesterday, James went swimming in his little pool that Grandma and Grandpa gave him for his birthday.  Believe it or not, it was a major success.  He walked all around the edge, threw toys around in the water, and even crawled around quite a bit.  Some of you may think this is totally dumb, but if you knew the extent of his fear of the water, you would be amazed.  So there is hope for him after all.  Hans is overjoyed and I'm starting to feel like he might actually be my son.  Lake Powell, here we come!

Crazy Weekend!

We had a very eventful weekend.  It was tons of fun and James enjoyed every second of it.  Ok, maybe not every second.  Just the parts that didn't involve water.  On Saturday, we went up to Deer Creek to spend a little time out on the boat.  James pouted and whined almost the whole time except when he got to sit on Grandpa's lap and feel like he was driving the boat.  If he has a steering wheel and buttons to push, he's feeling great.

Hans got to do a little wakeboarding.  Check out that sweet tan!  I even got up for a bit.  It was far from graceful, but I haven't been wakeboarding since before I got pregnant with James.  Looks like I'll be taking another break for awhile.

On Sunday, we had a combined birthday party for James and Kaden with my family.  Kaden is six years old!  So for the festivities, I was in charge of the cake.  I wanted to do something a little different.  This is what I came up with.  It took me all day and I had to have Hans help me a little bit with the head after I kind of had a breakdown.  Anyway, I'm glad it turned out.

James is trying to figure out what he's supposed to make of that candle.  Good thing Marissa was there to blow it out for him.

On Monday, we had another party with Hans' family.  This time, we went with a store-bought ice cream cake.  I couldn't handle another marathon baking day like the one before.

Happy Birthday James!!

I can't believe it's been one full year.  A year ago on this date at 2:40 pm we finally welcomed our little James.  We could never have anticipated how much our lives would actually change, but we're so glad they did.  James is everything to us.  We love watching him grow up and joking about how much he is already like his dad.  He has been such a joy to us in this past year.  We're so excited to watch him continue to grow.  We are especially excited to see how he will grow and change with a little brother or sister.

It's sometimes hard to imagine he was ever this small.  He was just a few minutes old in this picture.  This is my very favorite picture of him when he was brand new.

And here he is one year later.  This is him eating birthday cake.  He didn't really feel like smiling while he was busy with the cake, so this is the best we got.

Summer Fun!

Happy 4th of July!  We had such a great holiday this year.  We went to a few family bbqs and it was James' first experience with fireworks.  He actually liked them.  He didn't even freak out when my dad pulled out the really loud illegals.  It was really fun to be able to spend the day with family and enjoy a little time off.

Here are a few older pictures.  This is from a few weeks ago when we went to the Orem Summerfest parade.  This is my favorite parade and I'm glad we went because we didn't dare brave the Provo 4th of July parade.  Katie caught a UVU sucker and James couldn't get enough of it.  He had a green mouth for the rest of the night.

We decided it was time to get James in the water.  We were both pretty sad to find out that he hates it.  Who would have thought that a kid of ours would be so afraid of the water.  He's pretty much fearless when it comes to everything.  We bought a punch pass to Veteran's Pool with the hope that by the end of the summer he won't be such a scaredy cat.  Hans is determined to make his kid a swimmer.  So if any of you want to go for a swim, we're always up for it.

This was James' favorite part of the day.  As soon as he was out of the water and wrapped up in a towel, he was happy as a clam.

On Saturday, we went down to the courthouse where they have all the booths set up for the Freedomfest.  We just strolled and grabbed some lunch.  James loved it too.  As long as he has something sweet, he's in good shape.